purchase ten thousand stand of arms. Two hundred thousand dollars were voted for the purchase of arms and ammunition; and various taxes were imposed to cover the increased expenditure. The governor, on his part, "solemnly pledged himself to support and uphold the sovereign authority of the state." Nor, when the South Carolinians were threatened with the resentment of the general government, did their spirits quail. The proclamation of the president treating their re sistance as rebellion, and menacing them with coercion, was met by a counter-proclamation, which breathed defiance. War now seemed inevitable: the state, which had thrown down the gauntlet was determined not to recede; and the president, on his side, though avowedly adverse to protecting duties which caused the strife, expressed his firm resolution to avail himself of all the means in his power to put down opposition. Yet, notwithstanding the danger to which the Union would be thus exposed, there were not wanting those who were eager to brave it. They sturdily maintained that it was not consistent with the honor or well understood interest of the country to make concessions to a state which was in arms against the government; that it was not right to sacrifice great and acknowledged principles of national policy to considerations of merely temporary expediency; and that the question of the relative pretensions of the Union and the state governments, which, they coolly remarked, must in all probability, at one time or other, be settled by the sword, could never be brought to that fearful test under cir

cumstances more propitious to a correct decision of it. Fortunately for the peace of America more prudent counsels prevailed; a bill for modifying the tariff, and ultimately reducing the duties to a proper standard, was brought into congress by Mr. Clay, one of the representatives of Alabama. It was strenuously opposed by the partizans of the manufacturing interest, and gave rise to vehement debates. In spite, however, of the utmost exertions of its opponents, it passed the house of representatives on the 26th February, 1833, by one hundred votes against eighty four, and the senate, on the 1st March, by 29 against 16. As soon as it was passed the convention of South Carolina again assembled to take it into consideration. A report on the subject was made by a committee of that body. Its language was temperate and conciliatory; and on the grounds that the concessions were satisfactory, it recommended the revocation of the nullifying ordinance.

Congress, therefore, could only maintain the integrity of the Union by an abandonment of the power of government; and had to establish a precedent, if not a principle, that a state legislature, by a menace of physical force, can abrogate the laws of the supreme authority of the United States. It requires no inspiration to foretel, that, though this fleet of nations may sail under the same flag, as long as they drift in a current, or are impelled by a trade wind, the first political storm will cause them to commence separate and independent navigation, amid the violence of the hurricane or the horrors of the tornado.

NOTWITHSTANDING the hosts of tourists armed with pencil and pen, and assailing us in every accessible quarter of the land, that have of late sought their quarry in Ireland, we have looked in vain for a volume merely descriptive of our remarkable places, and which, omitting details of scenery that have been furnished to us a hundred times already, would confine itself to spots hallowed by the efforts of genius-the places where our "godlike men" lived and died. William Howitt, in the sister island, has done his office gently and well; he has visited her old halls, and battle-fields, and other scenes of historical and poetical interest, having set before him objects such as we describe, and in consequence has produced one of the most interesting books of the day, which has been re

THOMAS WARTON.

ceived with a blessing from every lover of English literature.

We want some William Howitt in Ireland. Not that we hereby mean to assert the equal capabilities of our Esher "friend" for description in the Isle of Saints; rather from a little experience on this score we should anticipate his failure; but we do want and wish for a visitor of a similar stamp, who, Irish born and Irish bred, will regard us with national interest, and will bring to his task those peculiar feelings of appreciation which almost seem denied to Englishmen. As our eye glances over the large circle of our own co-littérateurs in this Magazine, it falls upon more than one whom we could proudly bid to the work, with the consciousness that it would be well done at their hands; but, dear

public, they are, one and all, modest men and women, and their names shall continue unmentioned by us, despite the temptation to the contrary. There was One (alas! that we must number him among the past-aways,) who was peculiarly fitted for such writing; one who united the skill of an antiquary with the fine feelings of a poet, and relieved the dryness of historical detail by playful wit and unaffected pathos; one who possessed the virtues of an Irishman's heart without the errors of his head; onebut you have already guessed him, reader, and will know that we have been understating the truth, when we name for you the name of Cæsar Otway!

It has been a fancy of ours, perhaps a vain one, that a volume, which would thus associate Ireland with reminiscences of a purely literary caste, would not only elevate our country in the estimation of other nations, but would contribute essentially to an end scarcely less desirable-the affording men of all opinions and feelings something to think of in common. Surely, in our unhappily divided state, some such harmony of feeling, which might become the opening to still further agreement, is a devoutly-to-be-wishedfor consummation. Literature is the meeting-place for all classes of thinkers; and here we should have nothing to pain or trouble any, while we should find in abundance enough to interest all. Again we say, we want some William Howitt in Ireland.

And for subjects, they are on all sides. To begin with the metropolis : there is Glasnevin, with its recollections of Tickell, Addison, Parnell, and the rest of that brilliant circle which there met: there is Swift's birthplace in Hoey's-court, and his tomb in St. Patrick's: there is 12, Dorset-street, where Sheridan first saw the light, and Aungier-street, where his biographer, Thomas Moore, was born. And how many a oneeven the admirer of her poetrypasses 20, Dawson-street, without thinking of Mrs. Hemans; yet in that house the "falcon-hearted dove" folded its wing and fell asleep, and in the vaults of St. Anne's church, hard by,

Should

her mortal remains are laid. you not like too, reader, mine, run out for half-an-hour to Templeoguecatch our good editor in his undressand behold with your own veritable eyes, his unwearied manufactory of "Tom Burkes," "O'Learys," and "University Magazines," in full process of working? And then

"Halloo, Harry, what are you at? You need not stare or frown so horribly at us; we have not yet said aught mal-apropos concerning you. I' faith, man, we'll not praise you, if you don't like it; nor were we going to do it"

"Proceed, sir, mind your own business, and let me attend to mine. Pray, don't meddle with what does not in the least concern you."

Ay, ay, reader, we are forbid to tell the secrets of the printing-house, you perceive; and the hint is one we can. not choose but take; so now, revenons a nos moutons. Should you object that the places we have mentioned are isolated spots, full of interest indeed, and well fitted for remembrance, but unconnected with the works of the respective writers, and possessing less attraction from being undescribed in their books, we have our answer ready. While we are disposed to controvert your judgment in great measure, and rather assert the greatness of claims so purely personal, we shall, for the avoidance of argument, proceed to tell you of places which have been shadowed forth to the admiration of the world. Two, at once, recur to us, Lissoy, in Westmeath, the scenery of the "Deserted Village" of Goldsmith; and Kilcolman Castle, in the county of Cork, the residence of Edmund Spenser, where his "Faerie Queene" was written. We have chosen the latter for the subject of our present paper.

If we cannot claim Spenser as our own, so far as birth and blood are concerned, we can assert a wellfounded right to the fairest flowers of his genius, for they have grown, almost all of them, on the Irish soil. And not only was his lovely Land of Faery called into being on our shores. and moulded, and fashioned, and peo

pled with its bright and living inhabitants amongst us; but likewise our mountains, and glades, and rivers were transported thereunto, and made a very visible part of the Poet's luxuriant creation. It has been a delight of ours to wander over those portions of country which have been so consecrated, and identify them with the descriptions a jealous memory has treasured up; and the little map which we furnish will enable our reader to go with us in our narrative, and understand the better some extracts from the poetry of Spenser, which it will be a delight to us to quote.

We do not mean here to enter into a critical examination of the "Faerie Queene," or the other works of our author; the labour is un-needed, for it has been frequently done already. Perhaps there is no poetry which so entirely removes us from the actual material world; and instead of its noisy clamour and mournful realities, presents us with visions of peaceful and tranquil beauty, and the lavish treasures of an imagination that appears inexhaustible. All our Poets have delighted themselves in these writings; Shakspeare, in the "Passionate Pilgrim," has left us his record in the following sonnet :—

its rich and sweeping cadence found means for giving utterance to thoughts that oft times wring the heart that reads them. Wordsworth has two favourite volumes-and what are they? The story of her of the willow ditty, uncomplaining, ever-loving Desdemona; and of the lovely lady, whose angel's looks "made a sunshine in the shady place," the heroine of the "Faerie Queene."

Two shall be named pre-eminently dear,
The gentle lady married to the Moor:
And heavenly Una with her milk-white Lamb.

What a line of divine melody is that last one.

Heavenly Una with her milk-white Lamb!

In very deed we should esteem the man a dolt and a clod who loved not the poem even for the sake of that single harmonious verse.

When Sir James Mackintosh was invited by some London booksellers to superintend a republication of the early English Poets, he remarked that the biography of Spenser would be attended with no ordinary difficulties, on account of the absence of ascertained details. The poet's birthday is unknown, but the year is fixed at 1553; his worldly circumstances at his decease have been differently stated, some asserting that he died in London, in abject poverty; others indignantly denying this. His writings, too, have been made matters of controversy. According to many, there were other six books of the "Faerie Queene" written, which were lost through the carelessness of a servant, on their way to England for publication. We deem the story most improbable, and are satisfied that the six books we possess, with the fragments of a seventh, are the whole of Spenser's writings on this head. The poet always journeyed to London himself with his manuscript poems, and had not long returned from the publication of the second three books of the "Faerie Queene," when the rebellion of Tyrone broke out, which ushered in his death in the year following.

While these difficulties are acknowledged by us, we must confess our disappointment that something less meagre has not been given us of the Irish life of our poet. Twelve years, and they

a

his best ones, were spent at his resiHere he was dence of Kilcolman. visited by the chivalrous Raleigh; and commemorated that visit in poem that the world will not suffer to die. Here those writings were chiefly composed which give him a place next to Milton and Shakspeare. Here the bright hours of his marriage, a livelong summer's day, sweetly glided by. And here, too, the great misery of his life overtook him, (does not it frequently flow from the same source as our chiefest joy?) and hence he was driven, a homeless wanderer, never more to know peace or security until he found the shelter of the grave.

We must, however, make a brilliant exception. In the "Lives of Illus

The

We

trious Irishmen," by the Rev. James Wills, we have found the best memoir of the author of the "Faerie Queene," with which we are acquainted, and we have looked into a great many. reader will find in our number for January, 1841, justice done to this able work, and the greater part of the biography of Spenser extracted. must take heed, for our own sakes, lest we follow too closely in the wake of Mr. Wills; our object will help us, which is not so much to give a life of our author, as rather to offer our readers some fragments of his poems which relate to Ireland, and accompany them with a few words of running commentary, for connection's sake. We shall only supply the thread on which to string the pearls.

It was in the month of July, 1580, that Spenser, then in his twentyseventh year, first trod Irish ground. Lord Grey, of Wilton, in that month caine over lord deputy, and the future poet accompanied him as secretary; an appointment which, it is thought, he owed to the influence of the Earl of Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney. The government of Lord Grey was vigorous and energetic in repressing the discontented spirit which had, previous to his arrival, shown itself in an appeal to arms by the inhabitants of Munster; but through court intrigue and the calumny of his enemies, he was recalled, after two years. The fifth book of the "Faerie Queene," containing "the legend of Artegal, or of Justice," is in fact a history of Lord Grey's Irish administration; and the "View of the State of Ireland" was subsequently

am tyde t' ac

the which a rustick Muse did weave

In savage soyle, far from Parnasso

mount,

And roughly wrought in an unlearned loome,

The which vouchsafe, dear Lord, your favourable doome.